South Korea has fewer natural resources than most industrialized nations of its size. The country imports nearly all of its energy and most of its metal ores, relying on foreign suppliers for 99.6% of metallic ore concentrates and 98.8% of its coal consumption by value. Still, South Korea does possess meaningful deposits of certain minerals, extensive forests, productive coastal waters, and one standout resource, limestone, that dominates its domestic mining industry.
Limestone: The Dominant Mineral
Limestone is by far South Korea’s most important mineral resource. Reserves of limestone, including dolomite and marble, total roughly 13.8 billion tons. It accounts for about 85% of the country’s total mineral production by weight and around 72% of the total value of mineral production. The top 10 limestone quarries, all owned by cement companies, produced 57.6 million metric tons in 2020 alone, representing 73% of the country’s total output.
About 80% of all limestone mined in South Korea goes directly into cement manufacturing, feeding the country’s large construction sector. The rest supports steelmaking, paper production, glass, fertilizers, chemicals, and even food and pharmaceutical applications. Gangwon province and the central eastern coast are the primary quarrying regions.
Metallic Minerals
South Korea has small but active mining operations for several metals, though none come close to meeting domestic industrial demand.
- Iron ore: The Sinyemi Mine in Gangwon province is the country’s leading producer, responsible for 96% of domestic output with a capacity of 1.5 million metric tons per year. That sounds substantial, but South Korea’s steel industry consumes vastly more than domestic mines can supply.
- Gold: Two major gold mines, the Eunsan and Gasa-do Mines in South Jeolla province, represent the bulk of domestic gold production.
- Molybdenum: A single mine, the Keumsung Mine in Chungbuk province, provides all of South Korea’s domestic molybdenum, a metal used to strengthen steel alloys.
- Tungsten: The Sangdong Mine in Yeongwol holds proven and probable reserves of about 37,000 tons of tungsten content. This deposit is globally significant. A Canadian company has been reconstructing the mine with plans to restart production, which would make South Korea one of a handful of tungsten-producing countries outside China.
- Zinc: South Korea smelts zinc domestically, processing over 300,000 tons in 2021, though most of the raw ore is imported.
The government has formally designated six minerals as “strategic” because imports cover more than 90% of consumption and annual import costs exceed $100 million each: bituminous coal, copper, iron, nickel, zinc, and uranium.
Other Non-Metallic Minerals
Beyond limestone, South Korea mines several industrial minerals in moderate quantities. Feldspar, used in ceramics and glassmaking, is produced at mines in Chungnam and Gyeongbuk provinces, with the leading mine extracting about 200,000 tons per year. Graphite, increasingly important for batteries and electronics, comes from several active mines including the Eunbok and Daewoon operations. Pyrophyllite, used in ceramics, refractories, and cosmetics, is mined at multiple sites in Jeonnam and Chungbuk provinces. Zeolites, minerals with filtering and absorption properties, are extracted near Gyeongju and Pohang on the southeast coast.
Coal Reserves
South Korea has anthracite coal reserves of around 307 million tons. Anthracite is a hard, high-carbon coal that burns cleanly compared to other types. Coal deposits are distributed mainly across Gangwon province and parts of the central mountainous interior, formed in ancient rock layers hundreds of millions of years old. Some lignite (a softer, lower-energy coal) has also been mined near the southeast coast, though in much smaller quantities.
The catch is that South Korea’s coal is almost entirely anthracite, while its power plants and steel mills run on bituminous coal, a different type the country has no deposits of. This means that despite having domestic coal, South Korea still imports roughly 99% of the coal it actually uses.
Forests
Forests cover more than 63% of South Korea’s land area, making the country surprisingly green for its population density. These forests are the result of one of the most successful reforestation campaigns in modern history. After the Korean War left much of the peninsula stripped bare, decades of government-led tree planting restored extensive forest cover.
Despite the abundance of trees, domestic timber production remains limited. South Korea’s forests are managed primarily for conservation, watershed protection, and recreation rather than commercial logging. The supply of sustainably certified wood is extremely limited relative to market demand, so the country imports most of the timber and wood products it needs.
Marine and Fishery Resources
South Korea’s long coastline and surrounding waters are arguably its most productive natural resource. Total seafood production reached 3.61 million metric tons in 2024, with shallow-water aquaculture accounting for the largest share at 2.25 million metric tons. Adjacent water fisheries added another 841,000 metric tons, and distant-water fleets operating in international waters brought in 479,000 metric tons.
Seaweed is the standout story. Since 2016, seaweed production has exceeded fish production by weight, driven by global appetite for products like kimbap, dried laver snacks, and other Korean foods riding the “K-Food” wave. In 2023, South Korea produced 1.75 million tons of seaweed against domestic consumption of 1.36 million tons, giving it a self-sufficiency rate of nearly 129%, one of the few food categories where the country is a net exporter. Major aquaculture products include 572,000 tons of sea mustard, 552,000 tons of laver, 310,000 tons of oyster, 40,000 tons of flounder, and 23,000 tons of abalone.
Fish and shellfish tell the opposite story. Domestic production of 1.93 million tons covered only 57% of demand, with the rest imported.
Sea Salt
South Korea produces about 454,000 tons of sea salt per year. Most of it, about 62%, comes from solar evaporation ponds along the western and southwestern coasts, particularly on tidal flats where shallow pools of seawater are left to dry in the sun. The remaining 38% is refined salt produced through an electrodialysis process that concentrates minerals from seawater. Korean solar salt, especially from the Sinan region, has gained a reputation as a premium product.
Methane Hydrates in the East Sea
One potentially transformative resource sits beneath the seafloor of the East Sea (Sea of Japan). The Ulleung Basin contains deposits of methane hydrates, ice-like structures that trap natural gas within frozen water molecules. Globally, methane hydrate reserves are estimated at 3,000 trillion cubic meters, dwarfing all conventional natural gas reserves combined.
South Korea has been actively researching extraction methods, particularly a technique called cyclic depressurization that releases the gas by lowering pressure around the deposits. However, no country has yet achieved commercial production of methane hydrates. Multiple nations, including Japan and China, have conducted pilot tests, but the technology remains years away from large-scale viability. If it does become commercially feasible, these deposits could significantly reduce South Korea’s near-total dependence on imported energy.
The Import Dependency Picture
South Korea’s natural resource profile is defined as much by what it lacks as by what it has. The country imports virtually all of its oil, natural gas, bituminous coal, copper, nickel, and uranium. For industrial minerals, the picture is better: imports account for about 27% of consumption, largely because limestone and other non-metallic minerals are abundant domestically.
This resource gap has shaped the country’s entire economic strategy. South Korea invests heavily in overseas mining ventures, maintains strategic stockpiles of critical materials, and has built one of the world’s most advanced refining and manufacturing sectors to add value to imported raw materials. The steel, semiconductor, battery, and shipbuilding industries that define South Korea’s economy all depend on a steady flow of imported resources, processed domestically into high-value exports.